[NLRS] OT: Hard Drive recovery?

[Donn - WA2VOI/0]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce Richardson" <w9fz at w9fz.com>
To: "NLRS Reflector" <NLRS at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 12:56 AM
Subject: Re: [NLRS] OT: Hard Drive recovery?

SNIP

>  Roger
> on all the other backup strategies. She now has a Network Attached
> Storage drive.  That should help in the future.
>
> I think we all had this discussion about 18-24 months ago and that
> led me to my own Network Attached Storage (NAS) at that time.
>

If no one else has made the comment, I will... moving to NAS only moves the 
problem to another machine.  You still should have some sort of an archival 
backup scheme.  I did not in 2006, but I do now.  (Yeah, yeah.  Horses, barn 
doors, and locks.  I know.  The funny thing is that in my job at the time I 
would never, ever have let a customer run with out a back up scheme, but I 
didn't have one.)

Get a good backup program and run it REGULARLY on both your (desktop, laptop, 
whatever) AND on your (server, network machine, NAS, whatever).If its important 
enough, run a two or three generation backup, and store the 2nd generation in a 
physically different place from your (computer, network, NAS).  Run your backups 
at least twice a month, once a week is better, daily if you're doning real work, 
not just playing with the computer.  I currently use 100GB USB HDs that are used 
ONLY for the backup.  They are not even running otherwise, and I alternate 
between them.  I can lose my computer HD AND the current backup HD at the same 
time, but still have two week old data (at worst) to recover from.  When I do 
anything important, I do a differential backup right then, so maybe its even 
newer than two weeks.

FWIW, I use Acronis True Image Workstation with Universal Restore, so I can even 
recover dead computer hardware.  Yes, it cost money (~$150 at the time). 
Cheaper than having to recover an HD in a Clean room, if its even possible.

(And no, I have no stake in Acronis software.)

Good luck.

73 Donn
WA2VOI/0